DAILY | Godard, Sebald, Fassbinder

Contrary to current rumors, Jean-Luc Godard’s next film, which may be called GOODBYE TO LANGUAGE 3D, won’t be ready until 2013 at the earliest, according to French distributor Wild Bunch. Also: Raves for Grant Gee’s documentary PATIENCE (AFTER SEBALD), a preview of Rooftop Films’ summer season, the seven-month-long project HANDS ON FASSBINDER and more.

Fabien Lemercier set off a gleeful round of Chinese whispers yesterday, mine among them, when he reported that French distributor Wild Bunch would be launching pre-sales for four titles at the Film Market in Cannes next week, one of those titles being Jean-Luc Godard‘s Goodbye to Language 3D (Adieu au langage), “for which filming has already started with Héloise Godet, Zoe Bruneau, Kamel Abdelli, Richard Chevalier, Jessica Erickson in the cast.” This assumption was understandably based on the fact that Wild Bunch had a page for the film up on their site, artwork and all. Now that page is gone. So I called Wild Bunch this afternoon and a representative told me that Godard has in fact not begun shooting, that she could not confirm that he actually plans to shoot in 3D and that Wild Bunch would not be taking the title anywhere until next year at the earliest. “So it would be fair to say that he’s still in the very early stages of preproduction?” I asked. “Yes.”

New York. Which brings us to Patience (After Sebald), opening today for a week-long run at Film Forum. The New York Times’ A.O. Scott finds Grant Gee’s “admiring” documentary “appropriately Sebaldian. Following in the literal and metaphorical footsteps of The Rings of Saturn, a 1998 chronicle of an English walking tour that is sometimes read as an invitation to a pilgrimage, Patience combines a number of genres into a compact, digressive 82 minutes. It is a landscape film, an essay film, a celebrity biography full of testimony from friends and colleagues and also a hauntingly original piece of literary criticism.” More from Kenji Fujushima (Slant, 3.5/4), Michelle Orange (Voice) and Michael Wood (Artforum), who reads “after Sebald” in “an interesting triple sense: later than him, according to him, and pursuing him.” Update, 5/11: More from Tynan Kogane (Cinespect), Benjamin Mercer (Reverse Shot), Charles Mudede (Stranger), Noel Murray (AV Club, B+), Elise Nakhnikian (L) and Jordan M. Smith (Ioncinema). And Damon Smith interviews Gee for Filmmaker.

Rooftop Films will be all over New York all summer long, starting on Friday, with screenings, live music, parties, “and special additions that range from social justice activism to fun with paint and toys.” For the latest Cinemad podcast, Mike Plante talks with Founder and Artistic Director Mark Elijah Rosenberg and Program Director Dan Nuxoll (40’39”).

Berlin.Revolver, one of the most important film publications in Germany, and the Collegium Hungaricum Berlin are launching a project on Friday that’ll run even longer, through November 17. Hands on Fassbinder is, they insist, not a retrospective. “Rather, the person and his work will be considered as a point of departure for political and cultural visions.” I’ll have a hand in one of the events in June, but for now, here‘s the schedule for May. On a related note, Critic.de is also marking the 30th anniversary of Fassbinder’s death (June 10) with a series of essays they’ll be rolling out over the next several weeks.